Amateur Trench Electricians 



How the soldiers in the French trenches utihze shell cases, 

 brass scraps, and old muskets to spy electrically on the enemy 



By George Kenneth End 



IN a bombproof dugout under an 

 auxiliary station not far from Fort 

 Tavannes in the Verdun theater of 

 the war, an electrician has installed a 

 crude little wireless apparatus. 



This young Edison of the trenches is 

 the leader of a group of expert electricians 

 assigned to one of the most difficult and 

 most dangerous jobs on the front. The 

 laying of wires from the "poste d'ecoulc," 

 "listening station," to the switchboards 

 further back of the lines, tlie wiring of 

 underground mines so as to afford illumi- 

 nation for the soldier toilers under earth, 

 and constant vigilance over the wires 

 which might at any moment be cut by 

 exploding shells, is his job. 



It is useless to lay wires underground 

 along the Verdun front, so three wires 

 are strung for every line connection. 

 These lines are strung from small 

 posts about 7 ft. above ground, the 

 several units of the same line being as 

 widely separated as possible. Thus the 

 chance of having the circuit broken is 

 made comparatively small. 



At this particular switchboard, which 

 was about 15 ft. underground, there was 

 telephonic connection with about eight 

 different points along the first lines. 

 K\ery 20 minutes each of the lines was 

 tested by the operator at the switch- 

 board. When a line was found to be 

 cut a squad of four men was sent out 

 at once to locate the fracture and 

 repair it. They might be called ujjon 

 at any time of the day or night, for very 

 often when the enemy is concentrating 

 a curtain <jf shell fire over a section 

 information as to activities in the first 

 lines would be absolutely cut olT if it 

 were not for the teU'phonic connnunica- 

 lion. Most of the lines arc himg 

 parallel to tiic roads, where they are, of 

 course, exposed to shell fire more than 

 they would be if laid across the fields. 

 The main consideration, however, is to 

 have them accessible to the linemen. 



It is not shell fire alone which brings 



down the telephone wires along the front- 

 The closer to the lines, the cruder 

 becomes the method of hanging the 

 wires; so that a small windstorm or even 

 rain (which invariably follows a heavy 

 boml)ardment) may i)ut the wires out 

 of commission. 



The electrician in tjuestion, who had 

 been in this particular section of the 

 Verdun front during four months of the 

 great battle, constructed during his 

 spare moments a device for electrically 

 eavesdropping in the enemy's trenches. 

 For the success of the de\ice he was 

 decorated with the Croix de Guerre. 

 He had very little equipment at his 

 disposal, so he utilized, for the most 

 part, pieces from the artillery scrap- 

 heap. Through the use of his trench 

 dictaphone several gas-attacks of the 

 enemy were apprehended in time to 

 make preparations against them. 



During the night the electrician ar- 

 ranged in the enem\'s barbed wire a 

 series of discharged "75" shell-cases 

 containing microphones, to which he 

 connected wires terminating in the 

 French trench where batteries furnish 

 current for reproduction of the sound 

 waves on telephone receivers. A ground 

 connection is made to carry the "return" 

 current. 



It is true that the closer one gets to 

 the front the less general becomes his 

 perspective of the war. The men in the 

 first line trenches see the war sifted 

 down to the few feet of trench where 

 their guns are resting. News from other 

 parts of the front is generally 48 hours 

 late in reaching these men. If a soldier 

 who has been holding down his few feet 

 of triMich at Verdun is assured that his 

 countrymen on the rest of the front are 

 doing the same he is much encouraged. 

 This electrician has made it possible for 

 them to receive the daiK- commuvique an 

 hour after it is transmitted from the 

 great wireless station of the Fiffel Tower 

 in Paris. He did some more rummaging 



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